Internship
by extenuatingcircumlocution
Summary: (Sequel-ish to "Bitter Black Coffee") Natsume doesn't care about anything and is good at everything. His new internship seems to change things.
1. Chapter 1: She's Short

_A/N: Hey! My second fic, haha! This is kinda exciting! This one's about Natsume so it'll be a bit different than the one about Permy. Hope you enjoy! Reviews are welcome! (GA doesn't belong to me)_

**Chapter One**

_Monday_

**His** entire life, Natsume had been told he'd make a great lawyer. People always supported their arguments with different claims which proved pretty sufficient evidence, at least in Natsume's opinion.

His mother said admiringly that he was concise.

His father said proudly that he ran on logic, not emotion or passion.

His best friend, Ruka, had said jokingly that it was because he didn't care if people hated him.

His first (and last) girlfriend, that he'd only ever been with because Ruka needed Natsume to go on double dates with him and _his _girlfriend, had sobbed out that it was because he was heartless and cold (it shouldn't have to be said that this was when she found out he didn't actually give a shit about her).

His director at law school had said while beaming that he was the perfect example of a perfect attorney - a concise, logical, indifferent, cold, heartless, and bloodsucking parasite.

And because Natsume Hyuuga couldn't think of anything else to do and because he really didn't give a shit, he went into law school.

About two years in, his director signed him up for an internship. Apparently, he believed Natsume to be such a prodigy that an actual internship with an actual lawyer would do much more good for him than learning history and hypothetical lawsuits in a lecture hall.

And because Natsume Hyuuga couldn't think of a reason to stay in school and because he really didn't give a shit, he agreed to the internship.

Anjou L. Narumi, his director at law school, had put him at an internship at his old friend's firm.

Rei Serio, also endearingly known as "Persona" by his contemporaries for some ungodly reason, was a raging asshole according to Narumi, but he also felt that he was an excellent lawyer and that there was no one better for Natsume to learn from.

Again, Natsume Hyuuga really didn't give a shit.

He showed up at the firm in a black suit and grey tie. He wasn't nervous. He wasn't afraid. He was always good at everything so why wouldn't he be good at this?

He walked into the firm and took the elevator to the fifth floor.

After walking down the hall for a seemingly long period of time, he stopped at "Atty. Rei Serio"'s door. To the left of it was a brunette at a desk, looking intently at her computer screen, clicking fanatically and biting her nails anxiously.

Natsume turned his head slightly to see what she was doing, expecting to see long, boring documents or intently filled out spreadsheets on her screen. He was wrong.

She was playing Neopets.

He cleared his throat. She jumped and clicked nervously, minimizing her Neopets tab.

She moved her eyes up to his and smiled nervously.

"Hello~. . ."

Natsume rolled his eyes. "I'm here to see Attorney Serio."

The girl bounced in her swivel chair. "Oh! Are you the intern?"

"Yes," he answered impatiently.

She pressed a buzzer and cheerfully said, "Mr. Serio, the intern for you!"

A murky voice replied through the speaker. "Send him in."

"Sure thing!" She turned to Natsume. "You can go in now."

Natsume started walking towards the door.

"Ooooh!" She jumped to her feet and grabbed his wrist, sending a jolt through his bones. "Wait! If you call him Persona first thing, he'll be very happy! It usually makes a very good first impression! It really boosts his confidence!"

Natsume didn't care. At all.

"Oh . . . I'm Mikan, by the way." She held out her hand and smiled broadly. "I'm the secretary!"

"Yeah, I got that."

He avoided her extended hand and went through the door without giving her a second glance.

The office was pitch dark and Natsume couldn't see shit. But he still wasn't nervous. He had no reason to be.

"Natsume Hyuuga." The voice that spoke was deep and mysterious.

"Yes sir," replied Natsume.

"Narumi sent you."

It wasn't a question in any sense but Natsume affirmed it anyway with a grunt.

"The best of your class, I've heard?"

"Yes."

"Honest. I like that."

Natsume nodded.

"Well, I guess I'll have to get you to work immediately."

Natsume knew it. He'd never had to be nervous. He would make a good impression (even without calling Serio pet names), work his way up, and finally live in a huge payload as an independent lawyer by himself . . . alone. Except for Ruka.

"Alright . . .So . . ." There was a shuffling of papers and Natsume took a step toward where the voice came from, expecting a bundle of papers to be handed to him. "Get me a double shot espresso, largest size, no goddamn whipped this time."

What.

"Um, sir, can't your secretary-"

"Mikan Sakura is a decent secretary but, as you probably noticed, she plays Neopets on the job and has sweaty hands. I want to know if you're good at doing what you're told, so do as I say, Hyuuga."

Natsume didn't say anything about how he'd denied the secretary's handshake and thus couldn't possibly know if she had sweaty hands.

The shades were drawn, the lights were off, and Rei Serio sat at a desk in the corner, buried in shadow. Yet Natsume still saw him cross his arms and place booted legs on his desktop, gesturing with his head for his intern to beat it and get him his coffee - with his own money.

"Yes sir," said Natsume, walking out the door, a bit bitter.

The Mikan secretary girl was actually working on a spreadsheet, mindlessly typing and slowly clicking. Her face was no longer lit by concentration or even a smile.

"Waiting for me to leave so you can continue your game of Neopets?" he asked.

The secretary glared at him and continued typing into the spreadsheet.

_Oh, whatever._

He continued walking past her toward the elevator. _You should ask her if she wants something from the coffee shop, _nagged an annoying voice from the back of his head.

_No. Fuck that._

_..._

**Natsume** came back down the corridor holding two coffees. They were for Rei Serio and himself. He refused to get the grumpy secretary a coffee and convinced himself he wanted one by thinking about how _fucking cold _it was.

She wasn't at her desk by the door when he reached it.

He heard voices from inside the office and waited impatiently for the secretary to emerge.

When she did, her face was red and downtrodden.

"He's waiting for you inside," she said softly.

_Whatever._

He walked inside but before she closed the door for him, he saw her wipe something from her face. From her eye.

_Ugh._

The lights were turned on this time around but, although the sun was shining outside with a white halo, the shades were still tightly drawn.

Rei Serio was a tall, skinny man wearing a gross leather suit and obnoxious, white, plastic-rimmed glasses. His hair had not been brushed that morning (or any morning) and was the color of rotten fruit. Natsume was pretty sure the dude was wearing lipstick - purple lipstick - and eyeliner. His fingers and ears were stapled with jewelry and a small cross was tattooed under his left eye. Natsume wondered vaguely why this freak had such an amazing reputation in the law world.

Serio extended his hand and took the espresso, leaning against his desk to carefully take a sip.

He smacked his lips as if assessing it and said, "Perfect. You pass, Hyuuga."

Natsume suppressed a sigh of relief, not because he was embarrassed to be sighing, but because he didn't know why the hell he'd relieved in the first place.

"Alright, Hyuuga." Serio cracked his knuckles. He sat on his desk and crossed his leather-clad arms and Natsume felt out of place in his cheap suit, with the gross coffee he didn't want to and at the moment couldn't drink. "Do you know what kind of lawsuits we cover here?"

Natsume was certain Narumi had told him what it was exactly that Serio covered at his firm but since Natsume didn't give a shit, he hadn't been paying attention.

He shrugged. "No, sir."

Serio chuckled. "Again with the honesty. We cover sexual crimes on this level," he moved his hand in a circular motion to signal the floor that they were on. He snorted before continuing. "You _do _know what sexual crimes are, correct?"

Natsume nodded.

"Well?" Serio shrugged.

Suppressing a sharp groan, Natsume answered, "Sexual harassment, rape, sometimes murder."

"And you wouldn't do any of those things, would you?"

"No. I have no reason to." Besides, Natsume didn't even notice the opposite gender.

"No one has a reason to, Hyuuga. The people who do those things are pigs and that is why we deal with them for what they are here -" Serio grimaced "- disgusting monsters."

Natsume nodded.

"I want you to sort these-" Serio pulled out an intimidating pile of manilla folders "- based on sexual crime."

"Wow," said Natsume, trying to keep his voice bored. "That's a lot of folders."

"I know," said Serio, wistfully. "Sad, isn't it?"

He shoved the load of folders into Natsume's arms, knocking the coffee out of his hands so that it fell in slow motion to the ground, spilling its contents all over the plush cream carpet.

"Now sort them. And get that idiotic secretary to clean that up." He gestured nonchalantly for Natsume to get out of his office.

Natsume obeyed and left the office, closing the door behind him. His shoes were hot and sloshy with the goddamned coffee and the base of his slacks were steaming and soaked.

The secretary jumped when the door had opened, rubbing her hands all over her face.

Natsume decided he didn't give a shit. He was soaking in coffee and had a huge pile of folders to sort.

"Serio says to clean up a st- in there. Clean up in there." He motioned with his thumb to the door.

"Fine." She clicked at her computer and sniffed. Her voice was terse from crying.

Natsume decided he didn't give a shit.

The girl got up and said, "You can use my desk to sort those."

Natsume nodded. "Thanks."

"Oh . . . your shoes," she said softly, her voice sticky with tears.

Natsume decided he could tolerate her better when she was smiling.

"Yeah. I spilled coffee-"

"_He _did it. Don't blame yourself. That's just what he wants." She turned around. "Give me a second." She ran in the opposite direction. She was sporting pink knee socks and mary janes, he noticed. That was odd.

It wasn't like he could move from his spot. He would drip coffee anywhere he turned. Without moving his feet from the spot they were rooted to, he plopped his stack of folders on the annoying secretary's desk.

When she reappeared, she was still running, but she was holding some sort of cloth that was dripping with water and suds.

The second she caught up with him, she fell onto the floor and started to scrub at his shoes.

"That's not going to help much," commented Natsume. "I'm pretty sure I need to wash them in order to clean them."

She didn't look up or respond. She continued to scrub, working upwards to the bottoms of his pants. Natsume found himself slightly uncomfortable with the situation because a girl was _touching _him. A lot.

She kept her head down and scrubbed ruthlessly.

Natsume flexed his fingers uneasily.

Drip.

The slightest bit of pressure on his shoe. At first he figured it was just a drop of soapy water from the cloth, but when more fell and the secretary sniffled quietly, he realized she was crying.

Crying.

Crying while ruthlessly taking out her negativity on his shoes.

_Nope. Don't care. Don't care. Do not care. At all._

"Hey," said Natsume, keeping his voice indifferent. "I think I'm OK now."

The secretary dropped the cloth and immediately stood up so she was right in front of him, mere inches away. Only now did he realize that she was significantly shorter than him.

Natsume backed away a step. "Why?" He didn't want to specify his inquiry because he didn't want to mislead her into thinking that he was concerned. Because he wasn't.

She shook her head and Natsume rolled his eyes.

She wiped at her eyes and then looked up at him.

"I'll go clean up in the room," she said suddenly, peppy again, a smile stretching across her face. "Feel free to use my desk to sort those folders!"

She skipped past him into the office behind him.

Wow, that girl was weird.

Natsume wasn't completely sure he liked this internship.

...

**He** had taken great pains that day to sort all those fucking folders at the secretary's desk. She left a whopping two hours before he did, pulling her kitten-shaped purse out of her desk and smiling at Natsume expectantly. Pfft. As _if _he'd smile back.

"Have a nice evening! I hope your first day was good! See you tomorrow!"

He grunted a response and continued his tedious sorting.

When he entered Serio's office again to drop off the newly sorted folders, the room was dark once more.

Natsume left the door open this time so a bit of light got into the room. It fell onto the patch of carpet that he had stood on before when his coffee soaked his shoes. The stain and the drops leading to the door were all gone.

"Is she gone?" asked Serio's deep voice. It was coming from his desk in the corner. A ray of blue light reflected into his glasses from the laptop that he gazed at.

"Yeah," replied Natsume. "She left about half an hour ago."

"Just making sure." Serio collapsed his laptop and along with it the subtle image of him vanished into darkness. Natsume could barely make out that he wiggled his fingers for Natsume to hand over the folders. He obeyed. "Ah . . . This is good." He flipped through the folders. "As you may have noticed, Mikan Sakura was crying earlier today." Natsume was taken aback by the random change of subject.

Natsume didn't give a shit, remember? But he had noticed.

"My secretary is the daughter of my co-worker in the domestic violence category on the sixth floor. Yuka didn't want Mikan to work for her, so she asked me since I owed her to take her in as my secretary. I agreed but I seemed to have overestimated her abilities. She's absentminded, childish, and downright _stupid_. Today, I politely offered her a transfer."

Natsume couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed, but he didn't know why.

"She started yelling and crying and then I told her I will have decided her fate as my secretary by the end of two weeks from now. She was very upset, as you probably noticed. Thank God she's your problem now."

"What?" Natsume was confused. "What do you mean?" He quickly annexed, "Sir?"

"I'll let you watch her work - closely, I might add - and you tell me at the end of two weeks from tomorrow what you think her fate is at this firm."

Natsume's stomach flipped over in dread. More tedious busywork.

"Done, sir."


	2. Chapter 2: Her Eyes Are Brown

_A/N: I am SOOOO sorry I haven't updated in such a long time! I have had a lot of homework and I've been meaning to update since I've been done with this chapter for a long time, but I just never had the time. I know this chapter's kinda short but I thought, since Thanksgiving Break's coming up, that I could probably update really soon this weekend. Thank you for reviewing! It means so much to me! I'm also happy that I got so many views as well - that's really awesome :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and, you know, feel free to review if you want ;) Oh, and by the way, Gakuen Alice and these characters do not have anything to do with me; they belong to Higuchi Tachibana! _

**Chapter****Two**

Tuesday

**It** was the second to last week of November. The firm would have Thanksgiving Day off next week so Natsume had even less time to decide Mikan Sakura's fate. He resented this job. He didn't want to be the deciding factor in her life - or anyone's.

But this wasn't an option. He couldn't let his pity for her (no matter how small it may be) to sway him since he was mainly trying to win Rei Serio so he could get promoted.

And so he watched her.

Rei gave him busywork and folder-sortings and way too much time to complete the assignments so that he could keep an observant eye on her.

Natsume was granted his own desk on that second day, a desk conveniently, or coincidentally, across the door from the secretary's. This made it entirely too easy to glance over at her every now and then and check on her.

That day, she worked, holding a pen between her teeth so that she could focus. She had an odd habit of jumping at the ring of the telephone. She bit her fingernails every five minutes for thirty seconds exactly (Natsume counted), but he was certain she didn't time it perfectly _on purpose_.

At noon, when Natsume was flipping through a case from way back in 2006 (when he was a teensy freshman in high school playing video games with Ruka), Mikan the idiotic secretary got up from her desk after glancing at him suspiciously. She fished out her freaky kitten purse and waved at him before turning around and just _walking down the hall._

Natsume wondered vaguely where the hell she was going. He kind of wanted to tell on her, but it escaped him what he would say. He almost wanted to know where she had gone.

She returned at 12:48, complete with her striped tights, mary janes, kitten purse, and large bag of delicious smelling fast food.

"Intern!" she whispered shrilly. She walked over to his desk and he pretended he had just looked up to see her.

"My name's not 'Intern'."

"Well, I don't know your name, so I'll call you 'Intern' until I know it." She beamed brightly at him.

He ignored her. "What's in the bag?"

"It's lunchtime! I brought you food! I didn't know what you liked, so I put everything on it!"

"What-"

She reached inside the bag and pulled out a small object wrapped viciously in yellow paper and placed it on his desk. "I hope you like hamburgers!"

"You know, you could've _asked_ what I liked."

"Well then, Mr. Grumpy, it wouldn't have been a surprise!" she exclaimed under her voice, her hands playfully on her hips.

Natsume looked at her face and noticed that her eyes were chocolatey and sparkly with some sort of abstract _happiness_ that was alien to him.

He noticed that he had just gotten chills. This was bad.

"Thanks," he said curtly, turning back to his case file.

From the corner of his eye, he saw her fall gently to her knees and lean on his desk with her head resting on her arms.

He turned to look at her and got a little scared - she was smiling intently at him.

"What?"

"It's lunchtime, you know. You're allowed to take a break."

"You just _ditched _before your break even started. You should be making up for lost time right now."

She giggled. "Nah. I'd rather talk to you right now."

"_I _ have to work."

"Nope!" she teased, bapping his nose with her index finger. "You have plenty of time to finish that. I hear everything, you know!"

He glared at her, but - dang it - she was right. His easy work would have to be turned in two hours from now. Also, a part of him nagged that he should talk to her. To find out if the firm should keep her, of course, not so that he could get to know her better. Hell no.

"Hello," she said, extending her hand. "My name is Mikan Sakura." He didn't know what she was doing so he stood still. Her hand moved and picked up his, holding it gently and shaking it. "And you?"

_What is she doing?_

"Natsume. The intern."

She smiled widely; she knew she had won. "You work here too? Cool! I'm a secretary."

"I know," he said through gritted teeth.

She gasped. "How? I just met you! Are you stalking me?"

Her voice was so exaggerated Natsume wanted to tell her to go away and let him do his busywork.

But he didn't.

However, that didn't mean he was going to respond and play along.

"We've met yesterday, you know."

"Well, Mr. Natsume the grumpy intern, you are a one-of-a-kind _buzzkill_."

Oh no.

_She did not just pull out that word._

He'd been called that too many times before, especially by Ruka, his so-called "best friend".

"You're a buzzkill, Natsume," he'd said when Natsume had heatedly responded to his request to be his permanent wingman with a "hell no". That stupid accusation had convinced him to reply with, "Ugh . . . Fine." And look where that got him!

"Don't be a buzzkill, Natsume," he'd said when Natsume vehemently rejected to go to a "costume" party way back in high school when Ruka was invited by a "hot classmate" of the opposite sex in his Chemistry class who was obviously flirting with him. "Fine," he'd replied and they proceeded to make the gravest of their mistakes by showing up like Jedi knights when it hadn't actually been a costume party. Thank you, Ruka!

"You're such a buzzkill, Natsume!" third-grader Ruka had shouted when Natsume had said, with much concern, that perhaps Ruka should _not _walk atop the monkey bars like a model across a cat walk. "F . . . Fine," he'd nervously replied and that day Ruka was sent to the emergency room with four broken bones and blood gushing from his arm.

It could have just been that Ruka was an idiot and always managed to get himself and/or Natsume into some sort of trouble all by himself, but there'd always been that dirty accusation lingering in the air that was constantly associated with the travesties Natsume endured, so Natsume glared up at the secretary with distaste.

"I'm not playing along," he said sternly.

She sighed deeply. "Alright." She got up off the ground and sadly - almost _too_ sadly - walked over toward her own desk. Natsume kept his eye on her and she seemed to have the same idea. She glanced back too often (probably to see if he'd felt sorry for her yet) while still walking so she ran right into her desk, the pencil cup falling over and spilling its contents onto the carpet. She gasped and ducked down immediately to pick them up.

Natsume felt his face heat up instantly (and was very happy, thank you very much, that she wasn't looking at him to see).

Her skirt had ridden up her thighs and he could fucking _see_ her underwear pattern through her tights.

He shook the pesky blush off his face (it was just because he wasn't used to looking at girls' underwear) and smirked, mainly to distract himself. "I'm sorry if I don't play games at work or act like a two-year old, Polka Dots." His apology was completely insincere and she seemed to understand that because she flew straight up.

She pushed all the pens back in the cup and placed it carefully back on the desk. She glared at him. "I don't act like a two-year old." _Ha! She didn't get it yet!_

"Well, for someone who's _not _two years old, you sure do love to wear little kid clothes, Polka Dots."

Her eyebrows knit together in confusion. "It's a free country! I can wear whatever I want to!"

She was so stupid. "Alright, Polka Dots, whatever you say."

"Why do you keep calling me-"

"I saw your-"

Her face instantly flushed with vivid pink. "You-!" Her hands shot down to push her skirt down.

"Hey, you were showing me."

She glared darkly. "We work at a firm to apprehend people like you, you know!"

His face darkened as well. "I would never ever rape anyone. That's disgusting."

"Sexual harassment!" she exclaimed.

Natsume smiled - not smirked - at her. "I was teasing. Sorry if it offended you."

Mikan the secretary's face softened, but she quickly turned away and sat in her desk, munching pensively on her burger and refusing to look at him. She, at one point, even scribbled down some words on a pad of paper, but she never even glanced at him. He knew, because he kept looking at her. It was his job to, after all.

He started to feel bad for peeking and strangely felt like he wanted her to turn back around and talk to him.

She didn't.


	3. Chapter 3: Her Hair is Soft

_A/N: Hi! It feels like forever since I've updated :( I panicked and split this long day into two separate chapters since I figured it would be very long and I just wanted to give something to you guys without taking too long. In this chapter, Natsume and Mikan are both idiots and fail to understand each other while figuring that they do, which is ridiculous. This was fun and cute to write, so I hope you guys have a similar experience reading it. I can probably update soon again this week. I was gonna update earlier today but since I was accepted onto the competition team of Academic Decathlon for my school I wanted to study! I'll definitely try to post the fourth chapter by the end of this week! Anyway enjoy this chapter (and I do not own anything except for this weird dorky plot)._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter<strong> **Three**

_Friday_

**Ruka **Nogi, Natsume's best friend forever, was a flawed animal lover currently in training to be a vet.

Natsume remembered when they'd first met in a sweaty kindergarten classroom. The teacher - after noticing that not only did Natsume not have friends, he would torture the kids who did by setting their favorite toys on fire - paired him up with shy, sweet, similarly friendless Ruka.

It shouldn't have bloomed into friendship, what with Natsume being a wild, moody, stubborn troublemaker while Ruka was a quiet, gentle, amiable angel. But it seemed that the differences just led them closer and before they knew it, they were inseparable.

Natsume loved him more than anything (maybe at a tie with his younger sister, Aoi) and so he became a nervous wreck whenever it came to Ruka while Ruka began to be reckless and uninhibited when it came to Natsume (thus the monkey bars incident in third grade).

So considering Ruka's long, unexpected relationship with Natsume, his polar opposite, it shouldn't have been surprising when he started dating Hotaru Imai.

It shouldn't have been, but it was.

All of Ruka's girlfriends had been sweet and boring and all the same as the last. Brown hair, blue eyes, cute clothes. They always combined with Ruka to make a handsome couple and Ruka was always devastated when they broke up ("No, dude! This time was different! She was the one!").

His latest girlfriend wasn't just different from the others, she was unlike anybody on the entire planet. Hotaru Imai was an enigma, even to Natsume, and it was confounding how sweet, gentle, amiable angel Ruka Nogi wound up dating cold, blunt, indifferent statue Hotaru Imai.

And so it was with heavy reluctance that Natsume accepted Ruka's excited invitation to eat dinner with him and his "girl"friend.

"We're inviting one of Hotaru's friends as well so you don't get lonely," added Ruka, only after Natsume had half-heartedly accepted.

Natsume groaned.

"Oh, c'mon! Don't be a buzzkill!"

There he went again with his stupid accusations. "Fine," muttered Natsume irritably. Why was Ruka constantly trying to set him up with his girlfriends' friends?

But then Ruka beamed and Natsume softened. Getting Ruka to smile was always the only subconscious reason Natsume ever had for answering "Fine".

God knew it was worth it.

Natsume had filled a whole of two days trying to get the secretary to stop hating him without actually doing anything. That meant that he would do exactly the same thing as before, trying to get her to crack and start talking to him again before he did because he was sure he'd crack soon. Talking to her seemed to be relaxing, almost.

He got her to crack at an unlikely time, mid-Thursday afternoon. It was hot as hell in the hall, despite it being a cold November day outside, and Natsume had been flipping through some court cases with disinterest, mostly trying not to think about how hot it was. The secretary on the other side of Persona's door was fanning herself with her colorful notepad, biting her cheek, obviously in a foul mood. Natsume was starting to give up - it was hot and he was tired and bored. But he couldn't forfeit now and fall asleep when he had work to do and a secretary to keep an eye on!

So he slipped off his suit jacket in a half panic and started unbuttoning a few buttons of his white shirt.

"Uh...Uh…" came the secretary's anxious voice from the other side of the hall. He glanced at her and she averted his gaze immediately. "Umm...Uh….Yeah! When do you have to turn in your folders to Mr. Serio?"

Natsume was not an idiot - he knew she had cracked under the pressure of the heat and just wanted to talk to him again. Ha! He had won this time!

And just like that, they were back on speaking terms again, with her chattering happily from her desk while Natsume stayed mostly silent, content just to hear her talking - not because her voice sounded sweet or endearing, but because it was his job to hear her thoughts while he was not obligated to voice his own.

Natsume wasn't filing on Thursday - he was noting trends in Serio's previous cases (why he won, when he won, why he lost, when he lost, etc.). Lots of writing, lots of busywork, lots of time to complete just so he could keep an attentive eye on the secretary.

He found himself frequently neglecting his trend job in order to observe her, the strange secretary, who looked _different _today.

She looked peppy, excited, content, humming to herself a cheerful tune. When Natsume got a cup of water from the cooler, he caught himself redhanded humming the same stupid tune. _No, goddamnit._

Then he realized _why _she was different, as she sat at her desk, swaying slightly in her swivel chair. She was wearing a dark, deep, blood-red blouse and a tight fitting black pencil skirt. Her tights were translucent black and she had traded in her mary janes for short heels. Her hair was in a neat bun. She looked _different _and Natsume decided that she looked . . . OK. She looked OK. A bit better than usual.

Natsume was still feeling guilty about the panties incident but he found himself calling her "Polka-dots" because his mouth couldn't find any way to form her real name. Today, though, the secretary didn't seem to mind, smiling or frowning teasingly when he called her by Tuesday's underwear pattern. It didn't seem to matter, honestly, because Natsume just wanted to talk to her.

Natsume had gone to the staff room hungry, hoping to find some abandoned food. He was relieved to find that there was indeed a box of uneaten sushi labeled under "Yuka" in the fridge. The rich scent began intoxicating him and he told himself to start packing a lunch. And maybe to eat breakfast in the morning.

He returned to his desk almost in a good mood, eager to tear off the wrapping and eat already.

"Yeah! He seems so mysterious!" It was the secretary, chatting on her phone, trying to be as quiet as possible as she gossipped. At first, Natsume was certain she was talking about him, but then, "I'm excited to finally meet him tonight!"

The weird alien . . . fuzziness that Natsume had been feeling earlier withered and suddenly he wasn't so hungry. What was going on with him?

The secretary saw him retake his seat at his desk to continue his tedious note-taking, avoiding any glance at the sushi since he was certain he'd start feeling sick. She rushed the conversation to a close. "I have to go!" she whispered shrilly. "See you later!"

He ran his pen along the paper in little scribbles, just so he could look like he was writing. It helped that his negativity subsided slightly with the nonsensical strikes of the pen.

"Natsume!" the secretary hissed. "Intern!"

Natsume looked up at her, his eyes narrowed with bitterness that he couldn't place. Her face was slightly made up now and she looked . . . well, she looked OK.

She crawled over to his desk and leaned her head on her hands as she gazed up at him. "Guess what I'm doing tonight?"

_Probably going to go on a date with some pig who'll jump at any opportunity to take advantage of you_, thought Natsume as a veil of anger covered his brain from rational thinking.

When he didn't guess, she answered herself, "I'm going on a blind date!"

Natsume looked at her. Her eyes were a warm brown, sparkling and glowing, as if radiating chocolate heat in heart-shaped waves.

"Idiots like you shouldn't go on dates," he muttered.

"What is _that _supposed to mean?" she asked, her voice dripping in frustrated confusion.

_You're too naive and the monsters in this world would love to take advantage of that._

"You're so stupid you'd probably end up getting taken advantage of." _NO._ That was not what he wanted to say.

"What?!"

_Oh no. . . I just meant that you're too innocent to understand evil intentions. _"Oh, come on, you know it's true. You probably wouldn't understand when someone is dangerous and then it'll be too late."

"No! My friend said that he would never lay a hand on me!"

_Your friend may just be mistaken, you know. . . _"Don't trust people that easily. It'll just encourage them."

"You know what?" snapped the secretary, her eyebrows furrowed and her voice very . . .upset. "you're just jealous 'cause you've never even _gone_ on a date!"

"First of all, yes I have," rebutted Natsume smoothly. "Second, I bet the only reason you're excited is because tonight's your first." Why, oh why, was he being so damn _nasty_?

The secretary straightened to her feet and stomped back to her desk.

_Good, _Natsume thought. _I didn't want to talk to you anyway._

She started typing furiously and Natsume wrinkled up his scribbled paper and started scribbling illegibly again on a new one.

_I am definitely getting her fired_.

Even the thought of that didn't feel right.

* * *

><p><strong>He<strong> turned the case notes in to Serio at six. he had to get off a bit earlier so he could make the stupid Ruka thing at 7:30.

It was as usual -Serio liked his work, praising him concisely for doing a good job. Natsume was just about to leave the office to go get ready for the . . ._thing_. . . when Serio commanded him to stop with the resounding sound of, "Wait a minute."

Natsume turned around, hiding his impatience. _What do you want?_

"I don't like the road you're headed down. I'd do my best to stray from that path if I were you."

"What?" Natsume asked, a little annoyed. "I mean, excuse me, sir?"

"With Sakura. The secretary. I don't recommend going down that road."

Natsume felt his face get hot. _She was right outside!_ "I don't know what you're ta-"

Serio waved him off like he was swatting a pathetic fly. "Don't give me any of that bullshit. You _do _remember what your main assignment is, correct?"

_How could he not?_ "Yes, sir."

"I'd make sure not to forget. When I said she was your business now, I wasn't referring to . . ." Serio swirled his finger and pointed outside the door. ". . . whatever _that _is."

"No, I wasn't - I was just -"

"Sure. And I was joking when I told my grandmother her potato salad smelled like a wet dog pissing on a sweaty sock."

The analogy was repulsive and Natsume was starting to dislike this conversation.

"Do your job, Hyuuga."

"Yes, sir."

And Natsume left, his face still hot, but now composed. Right after he closed the door behind him, he turned to the girl. She was typing into a spreadsheet but he saw the minimized internet browser. _Was she playing Neopets on that?_ On the notepad he occasionally saw her scribbling on (that, on closer inspection, was ornate with pink bears and blue ducks) next to her laptop were the neat words, "BFF + Blind date tonight! Choose cute dress!"

Natsume boiled when he saw the chickenscratch lettering in the corner that he could barely make out - "Don't ever talk to Intern again!"

_Ever?!_

How could one teensy conversation put her off so much? Of course, he had been unintentionally rude, but never talking again? That was too much!

He slipped his sole, expensive pen into his pants pockets and hummed loudly to himself, mainly to make her notice him.

"I'm leaving now," he said, avoiding any direct eye contact when her face flew up.

"Good," he heard her mumble.

"I hope you enjoy your blind date," he said, purposefully not giving any substance to the statement. _I also hope you decide never to talk to him again like you did with me._

"I will!" she said, determined.

Natsume fumed quickly down the hall, probably frothing at the mouth with a wretched type of soft anger he'd never felt before. Having to go on a stupid double date with Ruka, his "girl"friend, and her friend (who couldn't be anything short of freaky) probably wouldn't make things better.

She couldn't "never talk to him again", could she?

He really hoped she couldn't.

* * *

><p><strong>Natsume<strong> was waiting in their living room so they could just go already (they were meeting their "dates" at the restaurant) but when Ruka finally stepped out of his room, Natsume almost revoked his "fine".

They were going to Red Lobster. Natsume wore a blank T-shirt with a black jacket over it, with dark jeans to boot, since he didn't give a shit and there was no point in dressing up.

It seemed Ruka had different thoughts.

"What the fuck, Ruka?"

Ruka was wearing a tux - a full-on, goddamn navy tux with a lavender flower on his chest to accentuate just how much of a smitten loser he was.

"Fuck no, Ruka."

"What?" Ruka said, looking deflated when he saw Natsume. He ran his hand through his _gelled back _blond hair. "I told you to get dressed."

"Why do you look like Louis XIV?"

Ruka narrowed his eyes. "Why do _you _look like a homeless person? At least brush your hair!"

"Let's just go." Natsume got up, gesturing for Ruka to follow. Ruka glanced with distaste and concern at Natsume's untidy hair, but followed quietly.

* * *

><p><strong>"<strong>**When** are they getting here?" asked Natsume through gritted teeth.

They had been sitting opposite each other in the booth for a good forty five minutes, with no call or sign from Imai or her friend.

"They'll be here soon," assured Ruka, but his voice was nervous.

This was testing Natsume's patience. "I swear to God if they don't get here in-"

"Hotaru!" Ruka exclaimed, jumping off his seat, looking behind Natsume as his eyes switched immediately from wistful to infatuated. Natsume couldn't help it - he rolled his eyes.

"Hey, Nogi," said Hotaru Imai's bland, unaffected voice. "This is my . . . uh . . . _friend_." She said the word with so much disdain, Natsume figured the friend must not have been in her right mind to stay friends with her - or perhaps she was just very stupid -

"Best friend!" corrected an all too familiar, enthusiastic voice, answering his doubts.

Natsume spun around and saw his secretary - erm, _the _secretary - standing by Imai in a pretty pink dress.

_She looks better in red_, thought Natsume bitterly before shaking his thoughts away with distaste.

Her sparkly eyes met his and her smile fell. "You?!"

Natsume was floating on a cloud of relief, since he didn't have to worry about her date anymore. Not that he'd been worrying.

"I can't believe this!" she shouted.

"Stop being so loud," said Natsume smoothly. "You're causing a scene."

"God_damn_it, Mikan," said Imai, smacking the back of her friend's head. "Sit _down_ and shut _up_."

Whimpering, Mikan followed Ruka and Imai to the booth. She glared at Natsume when the golden couple piled onto the other side, leaving her to sit with him.

She collapsed onto the seat next to him, her face angry and blotchy.

"You're overreacting," muttered Natsume, flipping through his menu even though he'd already decided what to eat forty five minutes ago.

"You were my blind date all along?" she hissed angrily.

"I didn't know you were mine, either," he bit back.

Natsume, hit with realization, looked up to meet Hotaru Imai's corpse-like violet gaze.

"You. You of all people. You put in a good word for me. You _hate _me."

Imai shrugged. "She was freaking out. I simply lied to appease her." She turned to his secretary. "As you can tell, he's actually not nice."

"Yeah, thanks for that!" the secretary snapped.

"So . . ." said Ruka, obviously eager to change the subject. Natsume took in his ridiculous get up with a scrutinizing eye. "How do you two know each other?"

"We work together," answered Natsume simply.

Imai snickered in the secretary's direction. "Is this the '_hot intern'_?"

"Shut up!" was the response. "Shut your face!" She leaned across the table as her face turned bright red. "I told you that in _confidence_!"

Natsume was beginning to believe that his stomach was in the process of being stuffed with cotton. "You think I'm hot?" he inquired, smirking and raising an eyebrow.

"Not anymore," she hissed.

"Alright, let's take a look at our menus!" said Ruka, anxiously trying to lighten the mood.

"I already decided what to eat," Natsume said, throwing his menu on the table. "Fifty minutes ago."

Imai narrowed her eyes dangerously at her friend. "See what you've done?"

"I wanted to look nice!" defended his secretary.

"You look beautiful," commented Ruka.

_God damn suck up_.

Mikan blushed. "Why, thank you! See, it was worth it!"

"Look at your menu, Polka-dots," Natsume commanded, nudging her in her elbow.

She glared at him but started flipping through her menu anyway.

She looked . . . OK. Her hair was up, all curly at the tips and it looked oh-so-fluffy, as if Natsume - if he were smaller - could curl up in it and just take a nap in absolute comfort.

Wait . . . what the hell?

What was he thinking?

It must've been Ruka's obnoxious suit - it was really starting to affect him.

He decided to zone back into the conversation taking place while he'd been staring at the secretary (thank God she hadn't noticed).

"-look like my great-grandmother." Imai sounded blunt and merciless. Not even Natsume was that mean about the stupid suit.

"I wore this for you." Ruka's voice was defensive, and almost wobbly, as if he was about to break into tears.

"Is that supposed to be compliment, Nogi? Because, to me, that is one hell of an insult. You look ridiculous."

"Fine!" snapped Ruka as he started unbuttoning his coat. "I'll take it off since everyone hates how I look so much!"

"Jesus _H._ Christ, Nogi," muttered Imai darkly as she buried her face in her hands.

A glance in the secretary's direction resulted in glimpsing her cherry red face as Ruka pulled off the stupid ugly jacket that was apparently adorned with frills, upon closer inspection.

So, for once that evening, Ruka looked normal (as normal as he could wearing the rest of the disgusting tux) and the secretary did not look "OK".

She looked lovely.


	4. Chapter 4: She's Lovely

_A/N: I haven't updated in an entire month! I feel really awful about it, I promise. The worst part is that I have absolutely no excuse - I was just really too lazy to even go on the computer and type up this chapter. I feel even more crappy since I'm not even giving a long chapter but I hope you guys don't hate it too much since there's (obviously) lots of NatsuMikan in it. I think I update faster when school's on, which is kinda depressing. Sorry for any typos or errors in grammar. When I reread, I find them and do my best to fix them but sometimes I don't see all the mistakes. Anyway, hope you enjoy and don't feel afraid to leave a review! I don't own the characters but I love them just the same. :)_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four<strong>

_Friday Evening_

"**I'll **drive you home," he offered. Her sparkly brown eyes looked up to meet his gaze. She then bit her lip, as if considering it.

"Weren't you the one who told me not to trust my date?" she teased after a moment, a small smile on her face.

Somehow they had gone from hostile, throwing each other angry glares, to friendly, teasing and laughing. Well, Natsume didn't laugh, but the secretary did enough of it to suffice for the both of them.

She had, over the course of the dinner, taken off her white sweater, completely revealing her pink dress, a strapless number that accentuated her pale skin and goddamn it, _he was paying way too much attention to things he shouldn't care about._

"But your date is me. I would never do something so nasty." His voice turned soft, much to Natsume's dismay. "I hope you know that." _Damn it! Why am I being a sap?!_

Ruka had betrayed him about fifteen minutes ago by excitedly leaving with his alien "girl"friend, probably to her apartment because it was neater (Natsume knew from being forced to be there once and noticing that there seemed to be no trace of life in that place, furthering his assumptions that she was an alien come to take over the planet) and Imai would never "sleep with Nogi in his filth" (which was mostly just Natsume's filth since Ruka was tidy while Natsume was… not).

Natsume felt his stomach churned. Thank God they weren't in _his _apartment or he'd have awful nightmares.

"Where do you live?" he asked, trying not to sound creepy. "With Imai or…?"

"No, Hotaru said she'd never live with me, even if I paid her… which I offered to do. I live with my friend, Iinchou."

"You have a friend named Iinchou?" Natsume deadpanned. "That's depressing." He couldn't imagine the screwed up expectations "Iinchou"'s parents must have had for her.

"Nah, I just call him that."

Or...for _him._ _She lives with a guy._ Natsume's stomach churned again. What kind of relationship did they have? Did they…. Natsume didn't want to think about it.

"OK," he whispered, mostly to assure himself that this wasn't a big deal, even if, for some ungodly reason, it was to him.

The secretary polished off her plate and stood up, stretching. "Let's go, Intern."

_Boy, did she have a weird fascination with nicknames._

_But. . . my full nickname is "Hot Intern", isn't it? _thought Natsume, wanting to smirk really badly out of conceited satisfaction.

He led her through the restaurant after paying the bill - which his "friend" graciously left for him to pay, because as _if _he'd let his secretary pay, what was he, a monster? - and into the dark parking lot.

He heard her breath hitch beside him as they walked. He glanced at her and saw her redonning her sweater, much to his dismay. He suspected she wasn't putting it on to shield herself from the cold.

"Are you OK?" he inquired, trying to keep his voice unconcerned.

"Uh huh." Her voice betrayed her words.

_She's scared. _"My car is close by," he assured her. Ruka and his consort almost definitely took her car because _why the hell would they take his car - it was _his _fucking car._

Of course, it was a pile of shit too, because he wasn't as rich as he acted, but it worked just fine and besides its aesthetic, it was a good car.

"Good," she replied, but Natsume would have to have been dense to not notice her inching closer to him while they walked. Natsume was the opposite of dense.

* * *

><p>Natsume was a good driver. A really good one.<p>

That was why he was so confused that the secretary kept snapping at him to _slow down_ or _put your seatbelt on_ or _stop trying to kill us!_

He pulled up outside of where she said her apartment was and rushed getting out of the car so he could open the door for her.

However, he failed and she had opened the door herself, much to his dismay.

"Well, thank you, Intern."

"_Hot _Intern," he corrected nonchalantly, to which the secretary glared darkly.

"First you try to kill me in your car, next you try to embarrass me to death…" she mumbled, walking toward the door. He followed her in and up two flights of stairs.

"_You're _the one who thought it'd be a genius idea to trust Hotaru Imai of all people with the list of your crushes-"

"I do _not _have a crush on you!" she snapped. "Why anyone could ever have a crush on you after finding out you're a heartless jerk is beyond -"

Before he could feel a bit disheartened that she'd just called him "heartless", a voice came from down the hall they'd just made it to.

"Sakura?"

The secretary's face lit up and she quickened her pace down the hall. Natsume did his best to catch up.

"Iinchou!"

Natsume was kind of ashamed he'd been worried about Iinchou.

The guy was a sweetheart in every sense of the term and he couldn't imagine the kid doing _any_thing immoral to the secretary at all.

"Yuu Tobita," he'd introduced himself, pushing his glasses up his nose and smiling shyly as he took Natsume's proffered hand. "I'm Sakura's roommate."

"How many times did I tell you to call me 'Mikan'?" said the secretary teasingly.

They were now in her living room, sitting on the soft yellow sofa.

Iinchou had run off to prepare "coffee or tea or whatever it is you like!" and now Natsume was left to awkwardly observe the conversation the two were having between rooms.

And then, amongst topics like the date, the restaurant, the food, Yuu called to Natsume, "So, how do you two know each other?"

Natsume smirked and looked over at his secretary on the couch next to him, only to see she had once again removed her sweater.

To distract himself from the fact that she was still looking - sort of, sort of, sort of - lovely, he answered. "We work together. I'm the new intern."

"Oh dear!" yelped Yuu from the kitchen and the secretary immediately stood up, shot Natsume an angry expression that looked like "you-did-that-on-purpose" was written all over it, and fled to the kitchen to help him.

"What happened?" her soft voice asked, and vaguely Natsume wondered how it would feel to be in Yuu's place-

"I spilled coffee all over the counter-hehe! Silly me!" They emerged together, Yuu carrying a silver tray with three dainty cups of coffee on it, from the kitchen. Yuu's face was as red as a strawberry. "I...Intern, you said?"

The secretary shot him a dirty look.

"She called me hot, didn't she?" teased Natsume and then both the secretary and Yuu had matching flaming faces.

"Of course not!"

"Why would I-"

"Well, I wouldn't say she _didn't-_"

"But I didn't-"

"Not with that phrasing, exactly-"

"Not with _any _phrasing!"

In an effort to defend the poor dorky kid (who had set the tray politely on the coffee table and proceeded to run his hand through his sandy hair exasperatedly because he must have been putting in a huge effort to be honest and not embarrass his roommate in the process), Natsume commented, "Well, I don't blame her for saying so, since I am pretty attractive."

His secretary glowered dangerously but Yuu just swallowed thickly before grabbing his coffee, downing it, and saying hurriedly, "Wow! Would you look at the time! I'm afraid I got to go to bed now - Gosh, it's so late! Good night!" And then he stood up and brushed off his pants before leaving the room into a little hall that probably led to his room.

"You two don't _share_ a room, do you?"

"No - why?" asked his secretary curiously as she dumped five spoonfuls of sugar into her tiny coffee cup.

"Want some coffee with that sugar?" Natsume asked sarcastically, only to receive a dark glare in return.

"Why does it matter?"

"Well, I mean, _I _certainly wouldn't be able to share a room with another guy… I mean, Yuu seems really tidy and all but I just don't think anyone would want to share a room with me… or you now that I think about it. You don't have the tidiest desk in the world." _Ugh… rambling again._

"Well, that's 'cause it's at work! My bedroom is _very_ clean, thank you very much!" She smirked triumphantly.

"Is that an _invitation_, Polka Dots?"

She turned bright crimson. "No! I was just saying!"

Natsume gulped down his coffee that had lost much of its heat and got up, replacing his jacket and heading for the door.

"It's been fun, Polka."

"Hey!" she snapped. "You can't just say something like… like… well, like _that_, and then just _leave_! It's rude!"

"Did you want something?" he asked lightly. "Did you say 'no' out of courtesy?"

He was smirking broadly but she turned away sharply with a "hmph!"

"Good night," he said softly and then opened the door.

"Wait!" she called.

Before he could even think of closing the door, she was outside with him, wearing her pretty pink dress. She pecked him chastely on the cheek and whispered, "Good night."

She hurried back inside and closed the door gingerly but Natsume was stuck in place.

What…

His cheek was itching, but he couldn't touch it. His face was on fire, he could feel the heat and it wasn't pleasant - as if it would go up in flames at any moment.

He slowly shuffled down the hall, down the stairs, out the door, into his car, but the feeling of her lips against his face was still uncomfortably present.


End file.
